Time credits: the alternative currency enabling volunteers to take action in communities

Time credits offer an alternative way to reward work that is traditionally unpaid, as Hazel Sheffield reports

Friday 01 March 2019 18:32 GMT
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Stephen Ricketts (left) started the Llanelli Visually Impaired Bowls Club in Wales after he unexpectedly went blind
Stephen Ricketts (left) started the Llanelli Visually Impaired Bowls Club in Wales after he unexpectedly went blind

Stephen Ricketts was 50 when he looked down at his dinner plate one night and found it had disappeared.

Mr Ricketts would later find out that he has hereditary condition that causes blindness. Overnight, it robbed him of his confidence and his work as a commercial tyre fitter. He became housebound, unable even to make a cup of tea, and so depressed that one evening he found himself on a bridge near his home in Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales, contemplating suicide.

That was four years ago. Now Mr Ricketts is helping other people suffering from disabilities and loneliness with the Llanelli Visually Impaired Bowls Club. The bowls club has flourished since Mr Ricketts founded it in 2016. This year, they are raising money to attend a national championship in Weston-Super-Mare.

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